The term ‘digital TV’ is becoming more and more commonplace, to the extent that people could probably get away with not saying the first word even in professional conversations, but there is still some sections of the market that need to be claimed before a status of ‘full domination’ can be achieved. Not that national markets aren’t pushing it close, though, with the world increasingly seeing increased digital coverage figures piece-by-piece, day-by-day.
One of the countries that it could be argued are closest to such status is Germany, who this week unveiled a new study from TNS Infratest (through their new ‘digitalisation report’) that placed their digital TV coverage in 2013 at 80.8% of all households, a rise of 3% on 2012 figures.
It is noted that the total number of households now receiving digital TV services in Germany is around 30.3 million, with 7.3m remaining solely with analogue as the country prepares to transition towards a future mandatory switchover.
Additional figures found that 43% of the German population regularly consume content via online sources (most often in addition to their existing TV habits), whilst ignoring that figure it was noted that 38.8% of the total consume internet content via a computer screen, whilst 16.7% watch connected video through their TV set (either on smart TV or on a connected device).
Back to the more traditional means of digital TV, it was noted that ‘DTH satellite reception’ is now equal to cable subscriptions in the rankings of ‘distribution methods’, each having 17.6m households subscribed (obviously meaning some homes carry both), with 2013 marking the first time that customers of the latter (55.9%) receive digital TV through their cable service.
It was also noted that digital terrestrial television (DTT) also rising, up by 11% to over 4m households, whilst 2.1m of those use it as their sole means of TV provision. Averages for DTT penetration do vary greatly by ‘state’ in Germany, however, with the 3 city-states of the country’s 16 (Bremen (26.6% DTT coverage), Berlin (24.5%), and Hamburg (20.6%)) leading the way when it comes to households exclusively using digital services, with more provincial regions naturally more likely to have below-average levels of coverage.
IPTV households, meanwhile, have risen to 1.9m (4.9%), with 16.8% of all homes claiming to carry an internet-ready ‘smart TV set’, though only 61% of this market have taken the time to connect their product for it to be ready to use its potential. Finally, figures found in the markets of mobile TV (2.5% of households include ‘on-the-go’ viewers), and digital radio (including 26.5% listening through the internet and 4.5% of the national population using the ‘DAB+’ service) were also all on the rise, in another promising year for the digital TV industry, which in Germany like much of the world, is growing slowly but surely…
The full report, which studied 8,000 German households, can be seen here: http://www.die-medienanstalten.de/service/publikationen/digitalisierungsbericht.html